Playing Real Big Shootin’ was a sweet reminder of everything we loved about The Gunstringer (OXM rating: 9.0), one of our very favorite Kinect games. Unfortunately, many of those wonderful ingredients aren’t part of this downloadable add-on.
As its title suggests, Shootin’ focuses purely on gunplay, presenting you with 13 shooting gallery–style challenges full of such appropriately bizarre enemies as flying sheep, giant spiders, leaping alligators, and doll-like corpses. Because Gunstringer’s core game mechanic is so good — firing your gun by swiveling your hand toward your shoulder feels as natural as ever — you’re bound to have some fun blasting away at all these targets as a Kinect cowboy. And trust us, you’ll need to spray bullets like a fiend to pass some of the harder challenges, especially if you crave high scores. After a few of them (especially those where you’re wielding a shotgun), we’d worked our arm so hard, we could hear the Repetitive Stress Injury gods laughing.
Even with mostly static backgrounds, the challenges offer decent variety. Some have you swinging a flamethrower or firing two pistols (one per arm); others taunt you by incorporating Guitar Hero–style lefty flip or by armoring foes so they require two shots to kill. And with 40-odd challenges total — the game alternates which you get on a given playthrough, although the last challenge is always against the same endboss (a classic arcade character we enjoyed shooting; thanks, Twisted Pixel) — there’s a bit of replayability.
Still, we found it hard not to miss all the stuff that’s not here — the hilarious voiceovers; the amusing story; an ever-shifting level design that had you running, jumping, flying, punching, and shooting from different perspectives. In other words, the kind of diversity that made the full game feel fresh from start to finish. To its credit, Real Big Shootin’ takes a great game and focuses on one element, offering an experience that’s legitimately different. In this case, though, “different” isn’t nearly as fun.
PUBLISHER: Microsoft Studios • DEVELOPER: Twisted Pixel Games • ESRB: Teen • MULTIPLAYER: 2 in local co-op only • ACHIEVEMENTS: Mostly doable • COST: 240 Microsoft Points ($3)
+ More Gunstringer, with the same shooting mechanic fans know and love.
+ Goofy levels with solid variety and plenty of challenge.
– By focusing solely on gunplay, it captures only a limited piece of Gunstringer’s glory.
? Next time, how about more insanely over-the-top DLC like The Wavy Tube Man Chronicles?
